SAP S/4HANA: Database Administration Tools You Should Know

When it comes to SAP HANA database administration tools, there is the DBA Cockpit, the SAP HANA cockpit, SAP HANA Studio, and the command–line interface.

DBA Cockpit

The DBA Cockpit is part of the SAP NetWeaver stack and is available for all databases supported by SAP such as IBM, DB2, SAP MaxDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and SAP ASE. It can be used to monitor and administer local and remote databases, manage the configuration of various databases centrally, and schedule database administrative tasks such as backups via the DBA planning calendar. The DBA Cockpit offers tools to monitor and analyze performance where you can view active threads, analyze SQL statements, monitor server resources, search expensive statements for a specific user, and more.

SAP HANA Cockpit

The SAP HANA cockpit can be used to centralize database monitoring and administration of all the SAP HANA systems in your landscape. It offers additional features for user and authorization management, backup and recovery, and high availability. It can be installed as a tenant in an existing SAP HANA instance, share a tenant with another application, or be installed as a standalone component using SAP HANA, express edition. Administrators can also install add-on components such as SAP HANA dynamic tiering.

The SAP HANA cockpit includes different apps to carry out daily administration tasks. Commonly used apps include the Database Directory, Database Overview, Managing Services, Database Management, Session and Threads, and Monitoring Statements apps.

SAP HANA Studio

SAP HANA Studio is a plugin for Eclipse, an open-source Java IDE. It contains tools for monitoring, troubleshooting, and tracing, and provides access to the catalog via a browser. It also comes with a SQL console from which SQL statements can be started.

It’s important to note that SAP HANA Studio is deprecated, but still used by many database administrators. SAP announced that SAP HANA Studio will be supported until at least 2025 together with SAP HANA SP 05. Over time, more features will become unavailable in the user interface and will have to be handled with SQL statements from the SQL console.

Command-Line Tools

Whether you’re creating tenant databases, configuring parameters, taking backups, or assigning roles to users, all configuration activities in SAP HANA are based on SQL statements or command-line tools. The command-line script can be used to start and stop the system, query the status of the instance, and list the version of the SAP HANA software installation. It includes an X-Windows application, which allows you to maintain the local instance. This tool can be used for monitoring and system administration tasks.

Monitoring and administering an SAP HANA system is more complicated from the command line than from the SAP HANA cockpit or SAP HANA Studio since there is no GUI. While the command-line interface is considered an important tool, database administrators usually lean toward using SAP HANA Cockpit or SAP HANA Studio for their intuitive approach.

If you’re an SAP S/4HANA administrator, it’s vital to know the ins and outs of the SAP HANA database for proper system operations. You must also be knowledgeable about SAP S/4HANA’s architecture, its features, and know how to use the main tools in key areas like security, performance, and change management. Our SAP S/4HANA Administration book provides both current and prospective administrators with the information needed to carry out their tasks.

The book begins with the future in mind. It discusses the evolutionary framework within which the careers of SAP administrators and technical consultants are likely to develop. SAP S/4HANA is a growing suite of solutions, and the book touches upon what you can expect in years to come.

A few chapters are devoted to the ABAP platform. Look at the system architecture and its layers, the fundamental structure, and clients. You’ll also learn how change management works in the ABAP system and how changes are transported to other systems. Later chapters will introduce you to the two main frontend components of the ABAP system, SAP Fiori and SAP GUI.

Since administrators need to ensure the system is stable, reliable, and secure, you will explore various features that will help you maintain the SAP S/4HANA system successfully. The book explains what system parameters are and how to change them, how to vary the number of processes in line with demand, and how to set up load-balancing between application servers. Then, learn about the authorization concepts, how to create and manage users, and methods for controlling access to the system through different communication channels.

Move on to monitoring and performance, where you’ll look at ways to examine the current state of the system, and learn how the system records detailed performance data for every action in the system. Then, take a look at the different ways to approach database management in SAP HANA. The architecture is discussed, along with the different management tools available like DBA Cockpit, SAP HANA cockpit, SAP HANA Studio, and the command-line interface.

The book dips into the development side of SAP S/4HANA. It provides a development example of a program to introduce you to the ABAP programming language. You’ll see how the transport system is used to distribute the program to other SAP systems. Learn how to utilize the tools to measure and analyze performance problems, and how to archive data.
There are a couple lifecycle management tasks that you will become familiar with. Learn how to install new SAP S/4HANA systems with the aid of the Software Provisioning Manager and how to patch systems or install add-on components, either with the Software Update Manager or with legacy transactions.

The SAP Support Portal is a helpful aid for system administrators, and you will learn how to research SAP Notes and knowledge base articles, record an incident at SAP support for problems you are unable to solve, and manage support users and connections. Additional support functions that you will need to successfully manage your environment are also highlighted.

When you near the end of the book, you’ll be provided with suggestions for creating checklists for recurring processes. You’ll then close out the book with a chapter that offers details on obtaining an SAP S/4HANA system via SAP Cloud Appliance Library.

SAP administrators will benefit from the details that explain how to operate and manage their SAP S/4HANA system. Although this book is geared toward administrators, it can be helpful for anyone who is tasked with managing SAP S/4HANA systems, such as SAP Basis consultants.

Mark Mergaerts is a principal technical consultant who worked for Expertum until 2022 and has more than 20 years of SAP experience. His activities concentrate on system administration, database management, performance, upgrades, and platform and Unicode migrations. He has written five other books for SAP PRESS.

Bert Vanstechelman is the CEO at Expertum and is the founder of Logos Consulting, now a part of Expertum. He has more than 20 years of SAP experience. Bert specializes in platform migrations, SAP installations, release upgrades, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP Supply Chain Management, SAP HANA, and OS/DB migrations. Bert is an advisor for SAP Professional Journal and an SAP Solution Manager Expert. He has written five other books for SAP PRESS.